The UK economy could decline for another year and take a further two years to recover

A National Institute of Economic and Social Research study says the current economic decline is "very similar" to the slowdown at the start of the 1980s.

The latest estimate predicts a 1.5% decline in the first quarter of 2009.

In a separate study by Nationwide, UK consumer confidence fell in March as worries continued about jobs.

The building society's consumer confidence index dropped two points to 41.

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) begins its latest interest rate-setting meeting on Wednesday, with its decision due to be announced at midday (1300 GMT) on Thursday.

The MPC is not expected to cut the Bank rate further from its current record low of 0.5% having cut the rate six times since October in attempt to boost the economy.

Jobs market

UK unemployment recently hit two million for the first time since 1997.

Nationwide said consumer confidence was "broadly stable since the start of the year, but feelings about the current labour market have weakened".

"Further reports of job losses are likely to have affected consumers' views of this," the report said.

Nationwide said consumers' confidence fell for the ninth consecutive month in March.

The building society's survey came as a report from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation/KPMG showed little sign of a strong recovery in the number of permanent jobs available in the UK.

Although its "permanent placements indicator" rose to 33.5 in March from 30.3 in February, that was still well below the 50 level, where growth begins.

"These latest figures leave no doubt that the UK jobs market is at its worst in the 11-year history of the survey and recovery might take longer and be more protracted than many hope," said Mike Stevens, partner and head of business services at KPMG.

However, the Nationwide's survey of 1,000 consumers indicated that they had became more optimistic about UK economic conditions.

"Increased optimism towards the current and future economy is encouraging," said Nationwide's Fionnuala Earley.

A succesful U.S. Treasury plan to rid bank balance sheets of poorly performing assets may be the key to unclogging the arteries of global credit marke

New U.S. bank diagram welcomed by funds and debt markets. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner provided further details of the complex program which could rid U.S. bank balance sheets of up to $1 trillion of bad assets. The highlight of the programs was the generous financing offered by the government to persuade private investors to participate.
The Treasury plans to team with investors to buy up to a half-trillion dollars of bad bank assets in hopes of opening up lending again.

An earlier smaller $80 bln plan, known as the Super SIV, failed in October 2007, and the original $700 bln Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) failed in late 2008 due to a lack of participation by private investors.
Early market reaction to the U.S. Treasury's latest plan appeared to be more positive on Monday.
"My own view is the plan is a sensible one," Byron Wien, chief investment officer of Pequot Capital Management, told the Reuters Private Equity and Hedge Fund Summit on Monday. "This is a PIMCO, BlackRock sort of thing, where some credit-oriented hedge funds will participate."
The plan is being launched at a time when lawmakers are furious about big bonus payments to executives at bailout recipient American International Group.
In an effort to spur investor participation, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said private partners in his plan will not face the tough executive pay restrictions that apply to recipients of government bailouts.
GENEROUS INCENTIVES
The main incentive for private investors to participate in the latest U.S. Treasury plan appeared to be generous financing terms to boost the return on the investment.
As well as the initial financing from the Treasury and private investors, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC), a U.S. banking regulator, and the Federal Reserve will be tapped to offer further financing.
Under one part of the plan focused on bad loans, the Treasury will provide up to 80 percent of initial capital alongside investment by private funds. The FDIC would then offer debt financing for up to six times the pooled amount.
In addition, the Treasury will approve up to five investment managers and match their money one-for-one. It will then offer debt financing for 50 percent of the combined capital pool to buy securities banks want to unload.
Two major U.S. money managers, BlackRock and PIMCO, expressed interest in participating in the toxic-assets plan, which could produce big profits.
"From PIMCO's perspective, we are intrigued by the potential double-digit returns as well as the opportunity to share them with not only clients but the American taxpayer," Bill Gross, PIMCO's co-chief investment officer, told Reuters in an interview.

The San Francisco Chronicle's largest employees' union has approved a tentative labor agreement

Chronicle union agrees to agreement concessions.SF record workers agree cost-cutting actions.Union members passed the agreement Saturday by a 10-1 margin, said Chronicle reporter Michael Cabanatuan, president of the Northern California Media Workers Guild. The union represents about 500 editorial, advertising and circulation workers.

The concessions include less vacation time and longer work weeks for the same wage.

"As I've mentioned before, this agreement is critical to ensuring the survival of The Chronicle," said Frank Vega, the paper's chairman and publisher, in an internal memo to employees. "I appreciate the willingness of our employees to work with us to make the difficult decisions that need to be made during these difficult times."

The Chronicle's owner, Hearst Corp., has warned that it would be forced to sell or close the paper if expenses were not reduced quickly. The company reported that The Chronicle lost more than $50 million in 2008 and was expected to lose even more than that this year.

The union is bracing for the paper to cut about 150 guild-covered jobs, Cabanatuan said. The newspaper's management had threatened to lay off 225.

The agreement approved Saturday also includes a better severance package for employees who are laid off or accept buyouts than was previously offered. They will receive two weeks of pay per year of service — not to exceed one year's salary — and health benefits for the length of the severance package.

Even with a tentative agreement approved, there remains another key hurdle: getting similar concessions from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 853, which represents about 420 other employees.

Frank J. Vega, chairman and publisher of The Chronicle, said in a statement earlier this week that an agreement with the Teamsters is needed "to ensure the newspaper's survival."

2009 is turning into "a very dangerous year" for the economy.

2009 is turning into "a very dangerous year" for the economy, said The eleventh president of the World Bank...(Robert Zoellick).

Twenty Group

G20 was established in 1999 as a forum for industrialised and developing economies to discuss global economy issues

It groups Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank also participate in meetings

Together, member countries represent around 90 per cent of global gross national product, 80 per cent of world trade and two-thirds of the world's population.


Robert Zoellick also warned G20 members against protectionist policies, ahead of a G20 finance ministers' meeting in the United Kingdom on how to tackle the economic downturn.

"If the leaders feel they are running out of constructive tools, they might start to point fingers and take protectionist and isolationist actions and those are the negative spiral of events you saw in the [19]30s", Zoellick said on Friday.

He spoke to reporters a day after warning that growth in the world economy was likely to fall by up to two per cent this year - the first contraction since the second world war.

The G20 finance ministers are gathering in Horsham, outside London, on Saturday to lay the groundwork for a G20 heads of state summit on April 2.

Zoellick said that governments may have to provide fiscal stimulus into 2010, but stressed that such action should come "within a framework of fiscal sustainability".

Finance ministers and central bank leaders from the United States and Europe are divided on whether stimulus packages or tighter regulation of the finance sector should be the way forward.

Conflicting statements made in the last week suggest the meeting on Saturday could be hampered by disagreements.

While the US wants a co-ordinated international stimulus to fight the slowdown, some European leaders favour tightening regulation of markets and institutions.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said on Friday that she did not favour a new package of economic stimulus measures.

Timothy Geithner, the US treasury secretary, said on Wednesday that he
would recommend the G20 nations to support "substantially increasing emergency IMF resources" and called for them to lend to countries hit hard by the financial crisis.

South Carolina will soon get $75 million in extra money from earmarks

What is an earmark?
Earmark is a politicized term that denotes money designated within legislation for the funding of a specific project. Opponents characterize it as a back-door approach to grant political favors and fund pet projects. Supporters view it as a way to channel tax dollars back home for valuable purposes.

South Carolina will soon get $75 million in extra money from earmarks in the $410 billion spending bill that President Barack Obama signed this week. Among the extra federal spending for the state is money for educating seafood lovers about the dangers of eating raw oysters, an oaktree-planting bonanza and a robotics training center in Union.

U.S. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn boasts of his role in bringing nearly half of that money home to the state to provide for improvements and economic development. He's responsible for $35 million of the total.

Meanwhile, another member of the state's congressional delegation, Sen. Jim DeMint, is on a crusade against the deficit spending and corruption that he argues is caused by earmarks, including ones going to other states for tattoo removal, pig stench and midnight basketball.

"Americans are suffering in this economy, but Washington appears to be recession-proof, with billions wasted on politicians' pet projects," DeMint, a Republican, said after the Senate passed the bill Tuesday. DeMint, who sponsored no earmarks, blasted Obama for signing the bill.

Fellow Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham agrees that earmarks can be abused but said they also can be for worthwhile endeavors. He sponsored seven earmarks, including several with Rep. Henry Brown, a Republican from Hanahan whose 1st District includes much of the Charleston area.

Clyburn, a Democrat who represents South Carolina's 6th District, said the earmarks are federal investments that produce real results.

The rich get of poorer quality

Microsoft founder Bill Gates regain the top spot, despite his wealth declining $18bn (£13.06bn) to $40bn.

The financial crisis is taking its toll on the world's richest people, wiping 332 names off Forbes magazine's "rich list" of world billionaires.

Just 793 people can now lay claim to a place on the list, but on average they have lost 23% of their wealth.

Don’t go looking for them in soup lines just yet, but the world’s billionaires have suffered too as the economy has tanked.

Where there were 1,125 billionaires on last year’s Forbes list, there were 793 when the new list was released Wednesday.

There was some jostling at the top. Bill Gates moved to No. 1 from No. 3, bumping investing guru Warren Buffett and Mexican telecommunications magnate Carlos Slim to No. 2 and No. 3, respectively. All of the top 10 billionaires saw their net worths fall.

Forbes reported that those on the list of billionaires had an average net worth of $3 billion, down 23 percent.

American billionaires this year accounted for 44 per-cent of the money and 45 percent of the slots. That’s up 7 percentage points and 3 percentage points, respectively.

Houston lost two of its billionaires, with money manager Fayez Sarofim and W&T Offshore founder Tracy Krohn falling off the list. But the city gained another: Bud Adams, the former Houston Oilers owner who still takes heat for moving the team to Tennessee more than 10 years later. He broke in at No. 647 with an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion.

Houston’s richest man, energy baron Dan Duncan, saw his rank rise to 81st, despite a $2 billion drop in his net worth. Rich Kinder, CEO and chairman of Kinder Morgan, and hedge fund manager John Arnold, were the only Houston billionaires on last year’s list whose values increased this year.

Oilman Jeffrey Hildebrand and lawyer Joe Jamail held steady at $1.5 billion each but moved up more than 300 spots to No. 468 on the list.

R. Allen Stanford wasn’t listed as a Houston resident when Forbes put his worth at $2 billion on last year’s list. Now the Mexia native whose company has its headquarters here has been removed from the list.

U.S. Economy May Suffer for ‘Long Time’

The U.S. economy will suffer from the effects of the global financial crisis for “a long time” as a slowdown in demand spreads to other countries, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker said.

“We’re in the middle of a kind of massive economic crisis,” Volcker, who heads President Barack Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, said today at a Columbia University conference in New York. “We’re going to hear the reverberations about this for a long time.”

Volcker characterized the downturn that started in December 2007 as “not like a typical recession in the U.S. or elsewhere.” He also cautioned that U.S. government and central bank efforts to revive credit markets should only be temporary to alleviate the risk of inflation.

Volcker said he is “shocked” by the international reach of the slowdown.

“The rest of the world has not held up,” making it harder for the U.S. to rely on strong export growth to emerge from its economic slump, he said.

“Industrial production in most countries is going down faster than in the United States,” Volcker said.

The U.S. economy will contract 2 percent this year, making it the deepest annual slump since 1946, according to a Bloomberg News survey of economists taken this month. Gross domestic product shrank at a 3.8 percent annual pace in the last three months of 2008, the Commerce Department said in January.

Volcker also discussed rising prices, saying even “a little inflation is bad.” The cost of living in the U.S. rose last month for the first time in six months as the consumer price index rose 0.3 percent, the Labor Department said today in Washington.

The Crisis Takes Hold
The first shoe to drop was the collapse in June 2007 of two hedge funds owned by Bear Stearns that had invested heavily in the subprime market. As the year went on, more banks found that securities they thought were safe were tainted with what came to be called toxic mortgages. At the same time, the rising number of foreclosures helped speed the fall of housing prices, and the number of prime mortgages in default began to increase.

The Federal Reserve took unprecedented steps to bolster Wall Street. But still the losses mounted, and in March 2008 the Fed staved off a Bear Stearns bankruptcy by assuming $30 billion in liabilities and engineering a sale to JPMorgan Chase for a price that was less than the worth of Bear’s Manhattan skyscraper.

A combination of higher food and utility bills, falling house prices

Many people have seen bills eat into their income
Households have less spare cash
Household finances have been squeezed by an "abrupt" change in circumstances in the past year, according to a survey for the Bank of England.

A combination of higher food and utility bills, falling house prices and scarcer credit have reduced household budgets and spending.

Nearly 2,500 households were interviewed for the survey in late September and early October.

Typically, they said they now had less spare cash either to spend or save.

"The typical household reported that the income it had available after meeting household bills had fallen over the past year and that it had saved less than it had expected," said the Bank.

Changing circumstances
The Bank's report said that, after a period of steady growth and low inflation, the last year had seen a sharp turnaround in the finances of British households.

More than half of those who took part in the survey had seen a decline in their available income after paying tax, debt repayments and utility bills.

A rise in mortgage costs for some borrowers earlier in the year, when they had come off fixed or discounted mortgage rates, had also played a part.

However, the financial situation of many households has changed since the survey was carried out in late September and early October.

About 40% of households have a mortgage and most of these will see their borrowing costs cut sharply because of the Bank of England's successive rate cuts in October, November and December.

These cuts have taken the official bank rate down from 5% to just 2%, with many economists expecting further reductions as the impending economic recession in the UK deepens.

£1.6 trillion debt
The Bank's survey reveals that total household debt in the UK has now reached £1.6 trillion, when mortgage debt is added to unsecured debt such as credit cards, overdrafts, hire purchase agreements and other personal loans.

And the survey has also found that more than 50% of all households now have some sort of unsecured debt.
The most exposed landlords were the 6% of landlords with high loan-to-value ratios on their main residence


However, the reluctance of banks and other lenders to extend much further credit, except at high rates of interest and to the most credit-worthy customers, is clearly contributing to the downturn in consumer spending.

In the survey, 16% of households said they were worried they might not be able to get any more credit, up from 12% who said this in 2007, and that this was causing them to defer their spending plans.



"Some households had been put off spending by tighter credit conditions, and more households were finding their debts to be a burden than in similar surveys carried out since the mid-1990s," the Bank said.

Japan's economy contracted by 3.3% in the last quarter of last year

Japan downturn: Toyota next?
Toyota just reported big losses - $1.1 billion for the second half, their largest since using the dollar.
They're cutting operations over the globe, cutting salaries and bonuses.
Having the "Cosworth option" might be the saving grace for F1 next year, IMO.

Japan's economy in quarterly dive
People(JAPAN) had been saying for some time that GDP would be bad, so while the market didn't welcome the numbers there was no excessive reaction .
Japan's economy contracted by 3.3% in the last quarter of last year - its worst showing since the oil crisis of the 1970s, official figures show.

The contraction means the economy shrank at an annual pace of 12.7% during the October to December period.

Economic Minister Kaoru Yosano said Japan faced its worst economic crisis since the end of World War II.

The slowdown in the world's second-biggest economy is steeper than that being experienced in the US or Europe.

Japan has been hit particularly hard by falling global demand for its products.
Exports, particularly of electronics and cars, have slumped and production has been slashed.
Consumers have cut back too, alarmed by rising unemployment.

"This is the worst economic crisis in the post-war era. There is no doubt about it," Mr Yosano said at a news conference.

"The Japanese economy, whose growth is heavily dependent on exports of automobiles, machinery, and IT equipment, was literally battered" by the global downturn, he said.

Mild reaction

However, Japan's stock market largely brushed off the latest economic news.

The Nikkei share index lost 0.4%, while the broader Topix rose 0.7%.

"People had been saying for some time that GDP would be bad, so while the market didn't welcome the numbers there was no excessive reaction," said Hiroaki Osakabe at Chibagin Asset Management.

"The next quarter is likely to also be tough because consumption may well fall off."

Mr Yosano said the government would consider new stimulus measures to aid the economy.

"Japan alone won't be able to recover. The economy has no border. It is our responsibility to rebuild the domestic economy for other countries," he added.

Prime Minister Taro Aso is hampered in his response by a divided parliament and a fractious ruling party.

There were reports over the weekend that he is considering another stimulus package of government spending worth 20 trillion yen ($218bn; £152bn).

But the latest opinion poll has showed that fewer than 10% of people support the prime minister, who must call a general election by September.

European economies contracted in the fourth quarter of last year

Europe hit by economic slowdown

The French economy minister has warned of tough times ahead
Germany is being punished for its heavy dependence on exports
European economies contracted in the fourth quarter of last year, with some countries registering the worst figures in decades, official data shows.

The eurozone economy shrank by 1.5% in the previous quarter and 1.2% on the year, Eurostat said.

Germany's economy shrank by 2.1% compared with the previous quarter, its worst quarterly performance since 1990.

France shrank by 1.2%, initial data shows, while Italy registered a drop of 1.8%, the steepest drop since 1980.
The data puts pressure on the European Central Bank to cut interest rates.

In the whole of 2008, the economy in the 15 countries using the euro grew by 0.7% against the previous year, Eurostat said. Slovakia joined the eurozone on 1 January 2009, making it a 16-country club.
The Dutch economy shrank 0.9% during the quarter while the Austrian economy eased by 0.2%, the first drop in nearly eight years. In the same quarter, Portugal's economy contracted by 2% on the previous quarter and 2.1% on the previous year.

"These are huge contractions in Europe, the largest in living memory in most cases," said Ken Wattret, economist at BNP Paribas.

Companies have cut investment and exports have dropped as the global recession has taken hold.

European companies hit by the slowdown include Air-France KLM, which reported a third-quarter operating loss on Friday, and Michelin, whose final-year profits fell as the crisis in the global car industry took its toll on the tyre maker.

The decline in demand for cars was further highlighted by data released on Friday.

The number of new cars sold in Europe in January was down 27% compared with January 2008, the European carmakers' association, Acea, said.

German gloom

The slowdown was the most dramatic in Germany, which registered the biggest fall since German reunification in 1990.
The 2.1% contraction was the third consecutive quarterly drop in Europe's biggest economy, according to the initial data from the Federal Statistics Office, worse than the 1.8% anticipated by analysts.

Year-on-year, the German economy shrank by 1.6%, after growing by 1.4% in the third quarter.

Many are now gloomy about the prospects for 2009.

"This shows things went downhill sharply at the end of the year," said Juergen Michels, an economist at Citigroup. "We'll likely head down again the first and second quarter."

"This number makes it plain that we're in a very serious recession - the most serious since World War Two. It's no surprise that exports and investment have tumbled," said Dirk Schumacher at Goldman Sachs, adding that the rise in inventories did not bode well for the first quarter.

The situation "can hardly get worse," said Carsten Brzeski at ING Financial Markets.

"The German industrial production has run out of steam with companies working only off their backlogs. Foreign demand has plummeted over the last months," he added.

Last month, the German government forecast that the economy would shrink by 2.25% this year.

France slowdown
The slowdown in the French economy was slightly worse than analyst expectations of a 1.1% drop.
The French economy expanded slightly in the third quarter, by 0.1%, which means that France has not officially entered a recession - which is defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction.

With consumer spending up by 0.5%, some analysts found cause for hope.

"Consumer spending has held up quite well so you can say there is still money out there to be spent and French households are spending it," Alexander Law, chief economist at Xerfi said.

Companies also reduced their inventories in the fourth quarter, shaving 0.9% off gross domestic product, a fact that could bode well for industrial production in the first quarter. With warehouses emptier, companies may increase production.

Many say that tough times lie ahead. "The first quarter will be difficult," Christine Lagarde, France's economy minister, said. "We will have a difficult year. "

The data increases pressure on the European Central Bank to cut rates. The bank cut the benchmark rate to 2% in January, the lowest in the bank's 10-year history and kept the rate unchanged in February. Its next decision is due on 5 March

US senators be in agreement economy bill

There have been a series of meetings to try to find a compromise position

The American people want us to work together - they don't want to see us dividing along partisan lines on the most serious crisis confronting our country

Senators in Washington say they have reached agreement on a huge economic stimulus package designed to revitalise the US economy.
Senior Democrats say they will back a plan worth $780bn (£534bn), instead of the $900bn sought by the president, in order to gain vital Republican support.
President Barack Obama denounced delays to the legislation, which mixes big spending plans and tax cuts.
The Senate is now due to hold a vote in the coming days.
President Obama has spoken of "an urgent and growing crisis" and said further Senate delays would be "inexcusable and irresponsible" and lead to "a catastrophe".
His comments came as the latest unemployment figures showed that the US had had its single worst month for job losses for 35 years.
Almost 600,000 people lost their jobs in January alone - figures Mr Obama described as devastating.

Rough water
President Obama is desperate to pass the package, the BBC's Adam Brookes in Washington says.

This is the president's first big legislative initiative since he took office, and it has hit some very rough water, our correspondent says.
The new $780bn plan is composed of 42% tax cuts and 58% new government spending, Democratic Senator John Kerry said, according to Reuters news agency.
Other details of the slimmed-down package are sketchy, but one Democrat told Reuters that the homebuyer tax credit and car tax credit were still in the bill.
The Democrats need to persuade two Republicans to vote in favour of the bill for it to gain the necessary 60 Senate votes.
Although Democrats hold a 58-41 majority, 60 votes are required to ensure the Republicans cannot block the bill with a filibuster.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said that at least three or four Republicans would vote for the bill.
"The American people want us to work together," said Senator Susan Collins, a Republican who will vote in favour.
"They don't want to see us dividing along partisan lines on the most serious crisis confronting our country."
However, the Senate minority leader, Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, said that "most of us are deeply sceptical that this will work".
And his Republican colleague, John McCain, defeated by Mr Obama in last year's presidential election said: "You can call it a lot of things but bipartisan isn't one of them."
'Echo chamber'
Mr Obama described as "devastating" the news that nearly 600,000 Americans lost their jobs in January.
"The situation could not be more serious. These numbers demand action," he said.

'Echo chamber'
Mr Obama described as "devastating" the news that nearly 600,000 Americans lost their jobs in January.
"The situation could not be more serious. These numbers demand action," he said.

Mr Obama's remarks came as he unveiled a new board of economic advisers, chaired by Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve.
"I created this board to enlist voices that come from beyond the echo chamber of Washington DC," said Mr Obama, "and to ensure that no stone is unturned as we work to put people back to work and to get our economy moving."
Republicans and some centrist Democrats are keen to reduce the number of spending commitments in the bill, and without their support the bill may not have enough votes to pass in the Senate.
The House of Representatives approved its version of the package last week, worth $825bn, without any Republican support.
If the Senate gives its approval to the bill, the two different versions will then have to be reconciled in a joint House-Senate committee before facing a final vote.
President Obama has said he wants the passage of the bill to be completed by 16 February.

Are you in the US? Are you in favour of the stimulus bill? Is President Obama right to urge swift action on the measures? You can send us your comments

Private Equity Firm Buys Real Money Trade Website

Even in these bad economic times the RMT business is still going strong. Considered a recession proof industry, money is still flowing strong in this market.
Santa Monica, CA (PRWEB) January 29, 2009 -- Web site MyMMOShop.com has been acquired by My MMO Inc. for $10 million. MyMMOShop.com sells in-game currency, for some of the most popular Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) such as World of Warcraft Gold, Final Fantasy XI Gil and EverQuest II Platinum.

Considered the #3 Real Money Trading (RMT) site in overall sales, MyMMOShop.com is known for its focus on customer service. MyMMOShop.com's Customer Support Department is accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via Live Chat. The company has tenacious privacy and anti-fraud initiatives in place, requiring voice authorization for every new order.

"MyMMOShop.com appealed to us because of its strong reputation for providing optimal customer service," says Hunter Crowell, My MMO Inc.'s Media Relations Agent. "That focus will continue with our purchase."

RMT in online gaming had suspect beginnings. Purchasing virtual currency rather than earning it by playing the games successfully seemed, at first, unfair to those who put in the actual playing time to earn the currency themselves. Beginners could often have unfairly large accounts when compared to veteran gamers. But it caught on. People began spending thousands of dollars to fund and equip their gaming characters. Using real world money to purchase in-game money got a further boost in validity when Sony created its own RMT site, Station Cash in 2008. Now a $2 billion industry in the U.S., RMT is rapidly growing. In fact, gaming may well be a recession proof industry.

"This is a risky time for any kind of traditional investing," says Crowell. "People are staying home more and choosing less expensive forms of entertainment, like playing video games."

Applying money trading basics to virtual economies yields tremendous growth potential, even in a volatile time. In-game currency is a highly desirable product with a pandemic customer base that is increasing at viral rates.

Technorati : Private Equity Firm, Real Money, Trade, Website, bank, business, money websites, moneynews, world, worldmoney

what is money?

Money is anything that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts.[1] The main uses of money are as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value.[2] Some authors explicitly require money to be a standard of deferred payment.[3]
The term "price system" is sometimes used to refer to methods using commodity valuation or money accounting systems.
The word "money" is believed to originate from a temple of Hera, located on Capitoline, one of Rome's seven hills. In the ancient world Hera was often associated with money. The temple of Juno Moneta at Rome was the place where the mint of Ancient Rome was located.The name "Juno" may derive from the Etruscan goddess Uni (which means "the one", "unique", "unit", "union", "united") and "Moneta" either from the Latin word "monere" (remind, warn, or instruct) or the Greek word "moneres" (alone, unique).

what is money?

Money is anything that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts.[1] The main uses of money are as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value.[2] Some authors explicitly require money to be a standard of deferred payment.[3]
The term "price system" is sometimes used to refer to methods using commodity valuation or money accounting systems.
The word "money" is believed to originate from a temple of Hera, located on Capitoline, one of Rome's seven hills. In the ancient world Hera was often associated with money. The temple of Juno Moneta at Rome was the place where the mint of Ancient Rome was located.The name "Juno" may derive from the Etruscan goddess Uni (which means "the one", "unique", "unit", "union", "united") and "Moneta" either from the Latin word "monere" (remind, warn, or instruct) or the Greek word "moneres" (alone, unique).